Safety attachment for elevators.



No. 652,||8. Patented .lune I9, |900.

i c. KIMBALL.

SAFETY ATTACHMENT FOR ELEVATORS.

(Application filed Mar. 24, i1900.1

INNEN-m5. CHARLE. KI'MBALR,

BWM 17M Ati z No. 652,|I8 Patented June I9, |900. C. KIMBALL. SAFETYATTACHMENT FOR ELEVATORS.

(Application led Mar. 24. 1900.)

2 sheets-sheet 2.

(No Model.)

INVEN :l

Ff- LIM CHAHLS, KIM :5A

,we Nonms PETERS co, mman-mo.. wAsHxNsToN, n. c,

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CHARLES KIMBALL, OF ASH'IABULA HARBOR, OHIO.

SAFETY ATTACHMENT FOR ELEVATORS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 652,118, dated June 19,1900.

Application filed March Z4, 1900. Serial No. 10,042. (No model.)

To all whom, t may concern:

Be it known that LCHARLES KIMBALL, a citizen of the United States,residing at Ashtabula Harbor, in the county of Ashtabula and State ofOhio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in SafetyAttachments for Elevators; and I do declare that the following is afull, clear, and exact description of the invention, which will enableothers skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use thesame.

My invention relates to improvements in safety attachments forelevators; and theobject of the invention is to provide an attachmentfor an elevator car or platform which is adapted to be thrown intoaction for arresting the descent of a car when the cables break or forany reason the car is dropped, all sub-` stantially as shown anddescribed, and particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a vertical sectional elevationof a section of an elevator-shaft and a car or car-body therein and ofthree several floors or landings at successive elevations, as areordinarily found in buildings and as hereinafter more fully described.Fig. 2 is a cross-section of the shaft and car on line 2 2, Fig. l, witha portion of the bottom of the car and of one corner of the landingbelow broken away to `disclose the operative parts beneath. Fig. 3 is avertical sectional elevation of a section of a modification of theinvention shown in Figs. l and 2 and hereinafter fully described.

I am of course aware that there are now in use various attachments forelevator cars or platforms designed to effect the stopping of the car incase ofv its accidental descent through the breaking of its cables orfrom other possible causes, and I do not claim to be the first toanticipate danger on this account or to provide against the serious lossof lives consequent upon such accidents; but I am not aware that any onehas ever before known or made an attachment for an elevator car orplatform and the landings thereof or for the four several corners of theelevator-shaft at the landings in conjunction with parts on the carwhich, is like my invention in construction or principle of operation,and two different embodiments of which are set forth in the accompanyingdrawings above l described and forming a part of this specification.

Referring now to Figs. l and 2, in which the preferred form of theinvention is disclosed, A represents the elevator-car, which may be forpassengers or freight, or both, or it may be simply a platform car orcarriage having a bottom corresponding to the bottom A herein andequipped with my new stop mechanism. B, O, and D represent three severalsuccessive landings or floors, and there may be as many of these as areordinarily found in buildings, the number being immaterial. The car isof course adapted to be -operated as ordinarily, whether it be byhydraulic, electric, or other power, and it is supported by cables E, asusual, and supposed to have the usual appliances for operating the car,according to the motive power employed, but which appliances are nothere shown.

In the invention as illustrated in Figs. l and 2 I have arranged thestop mechanism at the several landings, the purpose being to alwayscatch a car at the next landing below where the drop begins. Thus if itwere between landings B and O the car would be stopped at B, or if itwere between O and D the car would be stopped at C. It will also benoticed that this stopping of the car is partly dependent upon a simplelever mechanisrn in the car, which the operator has at hand and caninstantly throw when occasion requires, so that the provision forstopping is simple and prompt and such as Will render the stop effectivewhen the mechanism has shifted forthat purpose. This is clear from theillustrations in said figures, in which 2 represents a hand-leverpivoted on the platform or door of the car or at some other convenientplace and connected by a link 3 at its lower end to a crank-arm 4 on arock-shaft 5. This shaft is supported in suitable bearings in the bottomof the car andeXtends centrally across lthe car-front to rear and isadapted to be rotated through the lever 2 and link 3. Upon said shaft 5are two sets of short arms 6, rigid therewith and connected each by alink 7 with a bolt-operating member consisting of a shoe 8, having astem 9 and arranged beneath each corner of the car. The said shoes andtheir stems 8 are suitably supported in the bottom of the car, or, moreIOO properly, in corner-pieces 10, in which they have a slidingmovement, and which pieces or supports are of such depth as to hold thesaid shoes up in working position With all the strength they require.The said shoes S have rounded or inclined exterior engaging surfaces,which adapt them to bear against and depress or press back the bolts 12as the elevator descends, while the top corners of the elevator-cararerounded at a to depress said bolts as it ascends, and vertically at thesides of the car are bearings b to keep said bolts back till the car ispassed. Thus the car is not disturbed by bolts 12 in its ordinarytravels, although as each landing is passed both upward and downward thebolts in said landing shoot out to stopping position again when clearedby the car and are held out by the springs 13, which are engaged betweenthe end bearings 14 and 15 for said bolts. These bearing are designed tobe very firm and strong, so that if a car should drop with Whateverweight the immediate bearings or supports for the bolts, as well as thebolts themselves, would be such as to stop it absolutely. Of course thebolts are designed to be made of any size or quality required in anygiven case to make them safe, depending somewhat on the character oftheelevator and its most extreme demands.

Now in case of accident the elevator-man has immediately at hand thelever 2, which he can throw instantly from the position in full lines,Fig. 1, to the position in dotted lines, which through rock-shaft 5withdraws the shoes 8 and leaves the corners of the car free to dropdirectly on the next bolts below, where of-necessity it must stop, thesaine as if it had reached the bottom of the shaft.

It is understood, of course, in all such structures that the car travelsin bearings which hold it upright at all times, so that it isinimaterial where the load may be on the car when the cable breaks, theposition of the car will be the same. Hence in an accidental dropping ofthe car it is presumable that the four several 'bolts at each landing,at the corners thereof, as seen in Fig. 2, will be struck simultaneouslyby the car, or at any rate so nearly so that the severe strain which anybolt might incur by the car striking it first would be immediatelydivided by the several bolts, and obviously the car could not passbeyond this point unless all the bolts gave way. However, the corners ofthe car are so reinforced and the bolts are of such strength and are sofortified in their bearings that it is made impossible for the car tobreak them away or to pass through to the next set of stops below. Theonly possible shock or damage that could occur, therefore, would resultfrom the dropping of the car the distance between the landings, and thisbeing always relatively short the accident could not in the nature ofthings be serious.

`.Another form of the invention is disclosed in Fig. 3. In this case theshaft is provided with ratchet bars or teeth 2O in its four corners, theentire depth thereof, and the car carries four several ratchet-bolts 21,constructed with heads adapted to slide over said teeth as the carascends, but to engage therewith as it descends, as clearly seen in Fig.3. A rockshaft 22 and arms 23 correspond to shaft 5 and its arms 6 inFig. 2, and the lever 24 is connected by link 25 with a crank-arm 26 onthe same rock-shaft as in the first instance, so that` here again, as inFig. 1, the lever 24 controls the action of the safety mechanism.Ordinarily when the car is being used the bolts 21 are withdrawn andpass clear of the ratchetteeth both in their ascent and descent, and theposition shown in Fig. 3 is only taken in case of accident and when saidbolts are thrown out through lever 24. The point of correspondence inthis case with Fig. 1 is in the operation of the lever and therock-shaft and their connections, which are the same in both cases, andthe members of the safety attachment operated in case of accident toarrest the car. I might of course devise still other means for doing thesame thing, but have presented the foregoing views as a sufficientillustration ofthe principle and purpose of my invention.

In respect to Fig. 1 it will be noticed that the shoes 8 are heldforcibly in their extended position through lever 2, so that they serveto clear the way for the elevator-car as it descends. When the carascends, the bolts 12 are' engaged by the curved or beveled portions aat the top of the car.

What I claim isl. ln elevator-shafts, a landing and a set ofspring-pressed stop-bolts in the corners of the landing projectingnormally into the path of the car, in combination with a car andhandcontrolled appliances thereon to press the said bolts back to enablethe carto pass down, substantially as described.

2. The elevator-shaft and its landings and spring-pressed bolts in thefour corners of the landings, in combination with a car, shoes on thecarto press said bolts back and a lever and `mechanism extending to saidshoes to withdraw them and cause the carto be stopped in itsdescent,.substantially as described.

3. In elevators, an elevator-shaft having spri n g-pressed bolts in itscorners at the landings therein to stop the car in case of accident, incombination with the car having its `corners constructed to stop andrest on said bolts when the car drops, a lever in the car and shoesconnected with said lever arranged to press said bolts back,substantially as described.

lVitness my hand to the foregoing specification this 16th day of March,1900.

CHARLES KIMBALL. Witnesses:

H. E. MUDRA, R. B. MOSER.

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